Years ago, I found myself sitting in law school in Moot Court wearing an oversized itchy blue suit. It was a horrible experience. In a desperate attempt to avoid anything like that in the future I enrolled in a tax course. I loved it. I signed up for another. Before I knew it, in addition to my JD, I had a LL.M Taxation. I needed only to don my cape…. taxgirl® was born. Today, I live and work in Philadelphia, PA, one of the best cities in the world (I can't even complain about the sports teams these days). I landed in the City of Brotherly Love by way of Temple University School of Law. While at law school, I interned at the estates attorney division of the IRS. At IRS, I participated in the review and audit of federal estate tax returns. I even took the lead on a successful audit. At audit, opposing counsel read my report, looked at his file and said, “Gentlemen, she’s exactly right.” I nearly fainted. It was a short jump from there to practicing, teaching, writing and breathing tax.

As Taxes Edge Upwards, Leaders Question Taxpayer Patriotism

The American Flag blows in the wind off the back of the Ellis Island/Liberty Island Ferry with the Statue of Liberty in the background following the Ellis Island Family Heritage Awards at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum at the Great Hall on Ellis Island April 13, 2011 in New York. (Image credit: AFP/Getty Images via @daylife)

In a little less than two months, the 2012 Presidential race will be over. We’ll have either decided to give President Obama four more years or give a GOP hopeful Mitt Romney a shot. While the choice revolves around a number of issues (such as health care, abortion, gay marriage and foreign policy), the economy is the factor looming large in the minds of most voters. Specifically, worries over taxes – and those will-they-or-won’t-they-tax-cuts – have escalated the economic discussions to a whole other level. This time, however, it’s not just about your pocketbook, it’s about your heart: in this election season, patriotism is hot. And how much of a patriot you are seems to be directly tied to your views on taxes.

Romney got the ball rolling in Florida by painting himself as the champion for small businesses and middle America by preserving tax cuts for all taxpayers – including those at the top. To do otherwise, he claimed, would be contrary to what our country is about. In his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, he emphasized this point, saying, “[t]hese are American success stories… In America, we celebrate success, we don’t apologize for it.”

In response, Obama struck hard at his patriotic message in his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention last month, saying, “Over and over, we have been told by our opponents that bigger tax cuts and fewer regulations are the only way; that since government can’t do everything, it should do almost nothing. You know what? That’s not who we are. That’s not what this country’s about.”

But don’t be fooled into thinking that this is an American-only sentiment. In France, they’ve also pitched higher taxes as a matter of citizenship, with French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici saying, “It’s a strong, patriotic measure. Those that got very rich over the past period can help in a patriotic way to turn around the country.” That patriotic way is pretty steep: currently, Moscovici is pitching a 75% rate for France’s millionaires.

In the UK, the discussion is largely the same. Susan Kramer, the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokeswoman in the House of Lords, similarly touted pushing tax rates up for the upper class saying, “If we’re going to be a coherent society, and that is absolutely fundamental to our success and our prosperity, everyone has to carry a share of it.” She noted that it was their duty of those with money to pay “particularly in a time of austerity like this.”

Across the globe, it appears more and more that what you pay in taxes is somehow equated with your level of patriotism. Interestingly, it seems to be a fairly recent phenomenon. I’d love to hear your take. What do you think: is paying more in taxes the patriotic thing to do?

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to me Recall ALL Americans from our embassies within 7 days. Announce to all Middle East Islamic extremists and their allies that we will destroying our own embassies by OUR own hands and methods, and that these cowardly vermin stay on “the gates and walls to hell” at their own peril. The US will systematically destroy each embassy, its contents, and all surrounding buildings and “offended” parties. VOID all treaties calling for diplomatic relations with these terrorist states. ALL foreign aid to these butchers stop immediately. Iran put on notice that its nuclear capability, air defense and remaining military will be destroyed within 30 days by both the US and Israel in a joint blunt force. Lebanon, Syria and remaining Islamic-harboring countries to be placed on effective notice that they will be next to fall if just one further American life is lost. Immediate pull-out of Afghan, Pakistan and Iraq. We will retreat to our own borders and invest ALL foreign aid $ in beefed-up nuclear defense. The current Administration is nothing more than proven marxist pawns of these terrorist states.Quit the United Nations. IF you don’t want your children and grandchildren butchered in this country, for God’s sake deal with the devils and demons NOW on their shores. Our 300 million+ American souls are at stake. We have 66 days to act to protect ourselves. Any disagreements with solutions…let’s hear it now. This President does not protect our interests. He is an anti-semitic Philistine.

All 12 blogs I contribute to accepted my comment(s) EXCEPT the New York Slimes. I posted these comments the day after the Libyan murders. Note what has come to bear since! Yes, it is time to recapture ALL of our marbles, add up the tax cost to support and prop these Marxist/Fascist/Terrorist regimes, and be prepared to defend our patriots, our children and our grand children. It is no longer a long “Grey Line”….it’s ALL red…their blood or ours. Your choice on November 6th has never been more critical. If you pull the blue lever, you and yours will suffer for years under the blood of tyranny, within and without our beloved country.

I consider that how much tax you pay is not related or proportionally related to how much you love your country. The fedural income tax consists a large part of the government revenues, which is used to public construction and wellfare, etc. It is a responsiblity of citizens to contribute to the land where they live. There are quite numbers of issues in American society, such as health care, abortion, gay marriage as mentioned above. We can’t say that if we pay higher tax than before because of patriotism, then such problems can be solved, and then we become more patriotic. It is also understandable that when the economy goes down, people think more about tax avoidance to keep the money because of job lost. Both of these can’t explain the relationship between paying tax and patriotism.

First of all, let’s hold on the opinion of paying tax=patriotism. In the very beginning of taxation, collection tax was simply the method of keeping government running; the rulers needed money to maintain their power. And on the other hand, people or citizens were paying tax for some sort of service (military, police etc.) of having an ordered society. However, since the power of taxation is solely given to the higher level and often time they put themselves in the edge of being revolted. Because of this globally historical issue, people naturally are averse of tax, I don’t think even so called “patriots” would relate paying tax equals to what they support. Second, what is patriotism? The funny thing is that so many people including patriots that cannot separate government and nation. Yes, in many cases they are interchangeable, however, nation means more than just a geographic area; in addition, it includes a lot of more spirit and other stuff; nation is constant. However, government is just an entity, it changes all the times. Whom we are paying tax for: government. What if the government uses its tax money and does not do what its people want it to do? Thus, there is no relation between tax and patriotism. It’s jut a concept that serve to political purpose.

Taxes can be a way of showing patriotism for a country. However, what is the point in paying more in taxes if government spending is not controlled? Most people don’t want to pay more in taxes because it allows the government to further its out of control spending habits. It is the accumulated deficit that makes people feel that no matter how much they pay in taxes, they will never be able to make a dent in the deficit.

That being said, there are corporations that are getting away with quite a bit with regards to taxes. Microsoft paid only 11% in taxes according to NerdWallet.com for the year 2011. General Electric paid only five percent of their pre tax earnings in 2011. Smaller companies are paying more of a percentage of their earnings than bigger companies in certain circumstances. So in some cases the tax rate should be lowered, and in other circumstances it should be raised. Perhaps the tax code should be reformed in a huge way, or a new tax should be considered in place of our current federal income tax, such as a large sales tax.

Also, Illinois has mostly high tax rates across the board, yet is one of the most financially unstable states in America. Love for one’s country can be shown by a balanced budget and reduced spending, rather than increased taxes.

I don’t think that tying the amount of taxes you pay to the level of patriotic sentiment you have towards this country is fair. Sure paying more in taxes helps out the government but I can guarantee that most if not all Americans do not want to pay more out. There are a lot of Americans that do not believe in our government and our government’s systems of operations and I don’t blame them. When you have politicians that won’t tell the truth and will tailor facts that will make them look better will only deter citizens to not want to pay higher taxes. I don’t mind paying higher taxes because some programs that the government has in place I benefit from.

I do not believe that paying more taxes is somehow equated with your level of patriotism. Just because someone pays more taxes than another person does not mean they are more patriotic. Circumstances should indicate the amount of taxes that’s being paid by an individual. In other words, those who have more money should pay more taxes because they have more money to spare than the poor person who is struggling just to stay above debt and crisis.

In my opinion, paying tax is separate form the patriotism. There is so many ways to love the country, not just depend on how much tax people pay. How much tax the government required should be connect with the economic situation, not just to win the present competition. And in recent times, it is really common for companies to use all kinds of ways to avoid paying tax. If the government really wants the money, it should improve the loopholes of the regulation. At last I believe everyone love their country, and everyone don’t like paying tax.

There has to be a breaking point at which enough is enough in regards to being taxed. Yes, it is patriotic and part of being an American; but must we be punished for too much success in life? As I do recall, America was patriotic before the first sales taxes in 1812. To have different views on the basis of tax doesn’t make a person any less patriotic than the next. Although, to continue driving an economy with an increasing tax rate, you might as well beat down capitalism with a stick. Businesses are only found where there is profit to be made.

I don’t think there should be a correlation between paying taxes and patriotism. Patriotism is a devotion to one’s country. Does paying more taxes make you more of a patriot than a guy financially unable to pay the same amount of tax? Would an individual who pays additional tax be more of a patriot than our country’s service men and women? In my eyes, no. Patriotism, in my opinion, stems from the ideologies that a country was founded on. Believing in those ideologies and living by them makes you a patriot. I do think it’s great, that an individual like Warren B. would want to pay more taxes to help the greater good of the country. He makes a substantial amount of income and through tax incentives has a low effective tax rate. If I were in his situation, I would find worthwhile causes to help fund.